WHAT MAKES A GOOD GENERAL-PRACTITIONER - DO PATIENTS AND DOCTORS HAVEDIFFERENT VIEWS

Background General practitioners (GPs) are expected to be responsive t o patients' expectations, but patients and doctors may have different views on what constitutes good general practice care. Aim. To elicit a reas of controversy as well as areas of mutual agreement between the o pinions of patients and GPs with regard to good general practice care. Method. A questionnaire, distributed to 850 patients and 400 GPs, meas ured which of 40 aspects of general practice care were given priority. A second questionnaire, distributed to 400 different GPs, measured th e GPs' perception of the priorities of patients. Results. The priority rank order of all 40 aspects was highly correlated for patients and G Ps (0.72), as was the rank order of aspects for patients and the perce ption of them by GPs (0.71). Nevertheless, when comparing the prioriti es of patients and GPs, 23 out of 40 aspects differed significantly (P = 0.00125) in their rank number. Similarly, when comparing the priori ties of patients with the perception of them by GPs, 23 aspects differ ed significantly. Conclusions. There is great similarity between the p riorities of patients and those of GPs. GPs are quite capable of asses sing most of the priorities of patients. However, potentially controve rsial areas of general practice care do exist.